


Uptown Girl

by thestanceyg



Series: Billy Joel Prompts [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Getting Together, Meddling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-03-21
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:07:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23239678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thestanceyg/pseuds/thestanceyg
Summary: Fred has it bad for Hermione but is afraid to say anything. George meddles.Song prompt: Uptown Girl
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Fred Weasley
Series: Billy Joel Prompts [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1670908
Comments: 5
Kudos: 171





	Uptown Girl

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Dresupi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dresupi/gifts).



> I think this is my first HP fic. Well then.

Fred looked up from the book that was open on his palm in the stacks. He didn’t really need to read it. He wasn’t even sure what it was about, but having it was important because it gave him an excuse to be standing in the aisle. From here he could look through the shelves and see her. He knew he didn’t stand a chance, but that didn’t seem to matter to him. He couldn’t help himself. All he wanted was to see her and to make sure she was happy.

That was part of why he was pushing George so hard to keep working on their business. If they could get people to actually pay for their prank products he would have some money and he would be able to get her things like a book or two just to see her smile.

Right now she was running her fingers over the spines of a row while she looked for the right title. Her fingers were long and graceful. He knew from eavesdropping last summer when she had stayed for two weeks that she played piano and also had some dance classes. He could barely play a kazoo and wasn’t what anyone would call graceful.

He saw her head start to tilt up and immediately dropped his eyes to the book in his hand, just in case she could see him. Looking at the page, he realized it might actually be beneficial. The charm described could be added into their daydream products to help contain them so the person didn’t act them out but just thought them (a slight problem they had been having sporadically). As he read over it more carefully, he was shocked when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He jumped, almost dropping the book.

George was doubled over in laughter.

“Not funny,” he said, though he knew it kind of was. He flipped the book back open to the page he had been on.

“Was too,” George said, sticking out his tongue. “How’s your stalking?”

Fred blushed a hot red. “I don't know what you’re talking about.”

“Suuuure,” George sang. “You can’t hide anything from me. I know exactly who you’ve been keeping tabs on for the last few months.”

“I was actually here to work on a product,” Fred said, deflecting. “Here,” he added, shoving the book at his brother.

“Oh!” George exclaimed, his eyes quickly running over the page. “we could use this for-”

“Yes,” Fred agreed.

“And it would-”

“Uh-huh.”

Fred leaned back on his heels and looked through the bookshelves again. She was gone.

* * *

George watched his brother with some concern. The guy had it bad, and he couldn’t figure out why he wouldn’t make a move. Yeah, Ron might have some sort of feelings for her, but if he did, he hadn’t mentioned them and he had honestly been a bit terrible at times. Besides, she didn’t seem all that interested in him, so it couldn’t be Ron that was keeping Fred back.

Fred who was currently looking across the common room roughly every thirty seconds to check on Hermione while they recruited students to test their products. Others would assume that he was just making sure the prefect wasn’t going to come over and stop their work, but George knew his brother better than that. He kept looking because he wanted to see her; because he was drawn to her and couldn’t stop looking. He probably wasn’t even aware how frequent it was. 

This was getting ridiculous. They needed to have a talk, and something needed to change.

* * *

Hermione could feel eyes on her. She had been feeling them for months now, but she wasn’t sure where they were. Sometimes she was certain it was people breaking rules and not wanting her to catch them, but lately the gaze had felt weightier. She wasn’t sure how that was possible, but she felt, well,  _ something _ when she felt those eyes on her. It wasn’t bad. She didn’t think they wanted to hurt her, but she just wasn’t sure who it was and what they wanted.

She casually looked around, but couldn’t figure out who it was. This was why she had taken to drastic measures. Three weeks ago she had decided to solve the mystery and had created an arithmetic sequence to help her figure it out. Every time she felt the eyes, she would catalog the names of everyone near her. She just needed enough data points to get an answer. Of course, she knew that not every time she felt eyes it would be the same person, so she had calculated for that. She might have broken a rule or two by connecting to the matrix that created student schedules so she could also account for potential people that were in class. She hoped this would help weed out the false positives.

When she added her latest names, the paper glowed golden for a moment, and she felt her heart beat a bit faster. There was enough data. There was a response. She carefully flipped the parchment over, but was scared to actually look. She slid it under her book and then went back to her assignment. She’d finish the last three inches and then she would look at it. She would make sure to screw up enough courage then.

She did not have enough courage then, but it didn’t matter. Harry sat down next to her and picked up the book and moved it to the side, revealing the parchment beneath.

“Why do you have a paper that says ‘Fred Weasley’ on it?” he asked, his eyes looking on in confusion.

Hermione’s eyes grew wide as she looked over at him. Time seemed to slow down as she looked first at him and then at the paper. “Fred?” she asked, her voice a bit soft.

“Yeah,” Harry said, flipping the paper over. “And why's it on the back of an assignment?”

Hermione took the parchment from him and scanned it herself. It had an 87% likelihood of being correct, which she had to agree was pretty good for such an incomplete equation.

“It was an experiment,” she finally said, putting the parchment back down. “I was trying to work out a problem and needed to throw some data into it to get an answer and see if it was working properly.”

“Okay,” Harry said with a shrug. “I was wondering if you wanted to come back to the common room. Some of us are going to play games tonight, and you’ve been studying for hours. You need a break.

Hermione looked down at the paper one more time. “Yeah, alright,” she agreed. It was time to collect some more data.

* * *

Fred looked at George. He was up to something, but he wasn’t sure what. The sneaky git. Usually they kept to their year or the quidditch team, so what was with him organizing a “third year and up” truth or dare game? Maybe he wanted to make sure to include their siblings because otherwise they’d complain? Ginny would certainly write to their mom about it and then they’d get yet another letter about what a disappointment they were to her. It was a normal sort of letter for them, but it did still hurt. He’d prefer not to have another one, so he couldn’t fault George’s logic.

He sat down in the circle, which was actually smaller than he thought it would have been. It was mostly the quidditch team, Lee, and several people from Ron’s year. He swallowed hard when Harry walked in with Hermione and he called out, “we're not late are we?”

“Nah,” George said. “Just getting started.”

Fred tried not to follow her progress to the circle. Instead he looked at George. His twin was busy setting up the bottle for truth or dare, but he could read the way he was standing. George was hiding something.

“All right you lot, we’re going to play a muggle game called Never Have I Ever, but to make it a bit more fun, we’re going to drink laced pumpkin juice that will keep you from lying”

Well that was already different. He hadn’t played this one before. George was looking at Harry. He must have told him about the game. He stopped trying to read everything and paid attention to the rules.

“It’s simple,” Harry said, “we go around the room and a person says one thing they’ve never done. If you’ve done it, you have to drink a shot of the pumpkin juice.”

George cut in. “I’ve charmed the glasses, so you’ll be compelled to pick them up if you’ve done the thing. And the juice itself has a little bit of potion in it. Just enough that you’ll have to answer the next question aimed at you unless someone overrides it by saying the next statement.”

Fred considered this. There was a lot of potential here, especially as a product for the store. They could sell the charmed glasses and the potion to mix into the juice in a set, and then additional potion refills. He looked over at George and grinned. They were going to be able to test this product without paying anyone. Genius!

When there were no questions, George motioned to Harry to get started. “Never have I ever cheated on a test.”

“Lame!” Lee called out before he downed his juice. 

“What did you cheat on?” Angelina asked.

“Lockhart’s first day quiz,” several voices called out.

“Okay, maybe not a totally lame opener,” Fred said.

“Never have I ever crushed on a professor,” Katie said with a smirk.

He shouldn’t have been surprised to see Hermione grabbing her glass.

“Who?” Hermione asked, staring at Neville with wide eyes.

“Professor Vector,” he said, staring down at the glass.

“Oh, well that’s fair,” Hermione said sensibly.

“Never have I ever pranked Snape.”

Obviously he reached for his juice, but he almost spit it out when he saw Hermione reach for hers. She looked shocked by her hand and shot a look at Harry.

“Errr….maybe the, ya, know, _ whoosh _ ?” he said pantomiming something to her.

She frowned before throwing back her juice.

“What did you do?” several people asked.

“Set his robes on fire during a quidditch match,” she said.

Harry doubled over laughing.

“It’s not funny you prat!” Hermione said, glaring at him. “I thought he was trying to kill you.”

“You’re still alive, so I assume he didn’t catch you,” Katie said.

“He didn’t,” she said, and Fred thought she looked a little smug.

“Never have I ever found Fred Weasley attractive,” George said with a smirk.

Fred wanted to shoot him an angry look, but he was too surprised to see Hermione reach for her glass. He knew others did as well, but they didn’t matter. He couldn’t believe she was drinking.

“Never have I ever told Hermione how I feel about her,” Fred blurted out, trying to move the game along. Everyone froze for half a second, and then Fred’s brain caught up with his mouth.

* * *

Hermione sat shocked as Fred realized what he said and dropped his head into his hands. She vaguely noted several people drinking. And while her logical brain tried to scream that he could just be referring to liking her like a sister or some other, non-romantic way, she couldn’t discount her parchment glowing with his name.

“Let’s take a break,” she heard Harry say, and she realized that the world had continued on while her own world had tilted on its axis and made her think she could hope.

Around them people started moving away awkwardly, but both of them stayed frozen where they sat.

Finally Hermione shook out of her daze. “How do you feel about me, Fred?” she whispered. She was certain the room was too loud for him to actually hear her.

“Do you still find me attractive?” he asked, and then immediately backpedaled. “Forget I asked that,” he said, waving his hands like they could dissipate his words. He moved closer to her. And then took a deep breath. “I fancy you, Hermione. Have for months.”

“I do,” she said, trying to be as brave as he had just been, “still find you attractive, that is.”

Fred took one of her hands in his. “Go to Hogsmede with me this weekend?” he asked. His voice was so full of hope that she wanted to cry.

“Of course,” she said before surging forward and kissing his cheek.

Fred smiled brightly and Hermione just sat there and enjoyed being in his presence.

* * *

“I really thought they’d kiss proper,” George grumbled.

“Nah, Hermione might have hexed him. This is much more her speed.”

“I guess,” George agreed, but he still looked put out.

“Turn out like you wanted?” Harry asked with a small smirk.

“My brother’s happy. Of course it did. What about you?”

“My best friend's happy. Of course it did.”

George clapped Harry on the back and then moved away. Time to pass out winnings from all the bets the team had made on the outcome of tonight’s game.


End file.
